Welcome to all our new Mocs! The academic year is off to a great start. Unfortunately, until we achieve higher vaccination rates, COVID-19 and its variants will remain a part of our daily lives for the foreseeable future. I urge everyone to wear a mask while inside buildings and to get vaccinated. University Health Services will host vaccination clinics regularly throughout the semester at various locations across campus. You can find updated COVID-related information on the UTC COVID-19 web page.
So much of the UTC experience involves interaction with others, participating in events and meeting new people. This is a great time for new Mocs to get involved with activities on campus and in the community.
UTC Convocation and Welcome Week have been great ways to introduce our new students to UTC and its traditions. Thank you to everyone who helped make these events a huge success! Another of our campus traditions is coming up soon, as freshmen and sophomores will be guests of honor for our annual Mocs Flock Finley pregame tailgating event before the September 2 football opener at Finley Stadium.
A big shout-out to the members of the Marching Mocs and Color Guard, who have been hard at work since early August, and to our new band director Randall Coleman—who came to UTC after spending 14 years at the University of Alabama, where he most recently served as associate director of the acclaimed Million Dollar Band.
For those of you new to UTC, our interactive campus map is an online tool that allows users to receive walking or driving directions to campus destinations and points of interest around town. It is accessible from the utc.edu website on mobile devices by clicking on the map at the bottom of the homepage.
Congratulations to Takeo Suzuki (executive director for the Center for Global Education), and John Freeze (director of the Center for Professional Education) for their selection into Leadership Chattanooga’s Class of 2021-2022. Although not unprecedented, it is unusual for two members from the same organization to be invited to the same cohort group. This is a tremendous honor for both John and Takeo and further enhances our university’s networking opportunities within the Chattanooga community.
Vicki Farnsworth (Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer), Stacy Lightfoot (Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Engagement) and David Steele (Chief of Staff for the Chancellor) have been selected to participate in the University of Tennessee Executive Leadership Institute (ELI).
A research proposal by Trevor Elliott, UC Foundation associate professor in mechanical engineering, has earned a $542,000 funding award from the National Science Foundation. This very competitive award from NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program is an incredibly well-deserved honor. We appreciate all that Trevor does to engage students, as he serves as a faculty advisor for numerous student programs—including our record-setting Rocket Mocs. Congratulations, Trevor!
Best wishes to everyone involved in launching the new Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Leadership (BAS-AL) degree program. Housed in the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies, this online degree program will serve students with prior college, military or work experience who wish to complete their degrees. Kudos to Beth Crawford and David Rausch for leading efforts to conceptualize and design the program.
What a way to make an entrance! Rebecca Shortridge, who joined UTC this summer as a professor, department head and the Gary W. Rollins Endowed Chair of Accounting, recently received a “Woman to Watch” award from the Illinois CPA Society. Rebecca comes to UTC after serving as Donald E. Kieso Chair of Accountancy at Northern Illinois University.
UTC was named one of the nation’s “30 Best for Vets” colleges in 2021 by Military Times, which reviewed 366 public and private schools across the United States. Military Times publishes a print version and hosts a website with news about servicemembers around the world.
Congratulations to Mina Sartipi and the entire UTC Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, which teamed with the Chattanooga Smart City Division, Ouster and Seoul Robotics in being named a winner of IDC Government Insights’ fourth-annual Smart Cities North America Awards. The awards recognize the progress municipalities have made in executing Smart Cities projects and providing a forum for sharing best practices.
Welcome Back Mocs! We are all looking forward to a great year.